Opening Australia New Zealand Obesity Society (ANZOS) Annual Scientific Meeting

Rendezvous Hotel, Auckland

E aku rangatira, tēnā koutou katoa. Ka nui te honore ki te mihi ki a koutou.

Good morning, and welcome to you all.

Thank you Elaine for the warm welcome. It is a pleasure to be here this morning as you pursue better ways to manage and prevent obesity across Australasia for our children's children.

Thank you to the organising committee whose efforts have brought you all together. And to the Australia New Zealand Obesity Society for its role in helping you to share your knowledge in this area. Thank you also to those who have travelled great distances to be here today, including our Australian neighbours. I am sure everyone here looks forward to the perspectives you bring. I would finally like to acknowledge the Rt Hon Dame Jenny Shipley who I understand will be chairing a public lecture this evening.

Child obesity…the problem

As a mother and a former nurse, I share your concern with the high levels of obesity among our children. Obesity has significant physical, psychological, health and social consequences for a child, many of which carry into adulthood.

We are not alone. High child obesity levels are challenging many countries. By working together, sharing our knowledge and experiences, we can improve the ways we tackle this complex problem.

The Government is acting...

The New Zealand Government spends millions on prevention programmes to reduce unhealthy weight and improve healthy lifestyles. We are helping children to be physically active. The Government-funded Green Prescriptions for Active Families programme is helping children whose weight poses a risk to their health to get active and learn about healthy food.

Last year 83 percent of participating families saw positive changes in their child's health - more energy, more activity, and, for many, less weight. This programme can make a real difference to the paths children follow to their future.

The Government is also investing in Kiwi Sport, a programme supporting physical activity in our schools and sports clubs.

We care about children's nutrition. Last year Fruit in Schools delivered fruit to 484 low decile primary schools, reaching over 96,000 students. Innovative programmes, such as project Energize, are also out in our communities.

And moving to do more, with less…

Yet child obesity levels remain high.

To respond in today's economic climate, it is more important than ever that we make the best use of our resources – finding effective ways to do more with less. This is driving us to be innovative in how we deliver our health services. The Government is keen to use resources in areas where we can make the best long-term investment – this will benefit our children's children. We have been working with the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, who suggests pre-conditions for obesity are set early and the best intervention point is maternal and newborn nutrition. In response, Professor Gluckman suggested a focus on:

• improving young women's pre-conception health
• supporting healthy weight gain and fetal growth during pregnancy
• screening for gestational diabetes
• promoting healthy feeding of babies
• providing advice on weaning to establish healthy eating patterns early.

A review of nutrition and physical activity programmes showed more could be done to improve healthy weight gain and nutrition education during pregnancy and improve nutrition education and support for babies, infants and pre-schoolers.

As a number of public health contracts expire over the next few years, we will re-prioritise funding to these priorities. Many of you may also have your own ideas for how these areas can be better served. The Ministry of Health will soon be issuing a request for proposals and I encourage you to put your ideas forward.

Supporting health professionals in these areas will be vital. For example, pregnancy weight management guidelines are being developed for our maternity services. The Health Promotion Agency will play an important role in ensuring women's health services have easy to use, accessible resources on good nutrition.

We are exploring how we can better support mothers and newborns by delivering programmes differently and leveraging other funding sources and resources to provide nutrition advice and education. One way to do this might be by partnering more with the private sector.

Public, private partnerships

In these tight financial times I challenge you to consider how we can work together across the public, private and charitable sectors to get the most out of our resources and learnings, for the benefit of our children. Private partnerships are an opportunity to share, and get the most from, our resources and expertise.

An innovative example of how we are bringing together public, private and charitable resources to deliver nutrition education to our children is the Food for Thought programme. A collaboration between the Heart Foundation and Foodstuffs, Food for Thought is an exciting and innovative nutrition education programme for year 5 and 6 children. The children receive education resources, a visit from a nutritionist who teaches them to read nutrition labels, learn to prepare a healthy meal and understand the need for a balanced diet. The children then visit a supermarket, buying food to make and share a healthy lunch in their classroom.

More effective & seamless services

The Government is looking for opportunities to improve the nutrition support and advice women and newborns receive through existing maternity services, Well Child, Whānau Ora and school-based health services.

Every day, up and down the country, maternity and Well Child services deliver thousands of important health and wellbeing checks for pregnant women and children. These checks happen at important developmental milestones during pregnancy, in the early postnatal period, and throughout the preschool years. They enable health issues to be identified earlier and addressed sooner.

That's good for everyone.

Midwives and Well Child nurses also provide extra support for pregnant women and children identified with high needs. And they're often instrumental in linking struggling families with other services they need, including to social services that support families. That's important for good outcomes across the board.

Looking ahead, we want to see these key universal health services for pregnant women and children continue to strengthen their connections with each other, and with other services. We will also look at ways to increase the consistency of advice and messages provided to pregnant women, so that families receive clear advice that addresses their individual needs and situations.

Conclusion

We are making strides to improve our impact on obesity. But there is much to learn about how we respond to this complex problem. As you share your insights over the coming days I challenge you to consider how, together, we can rise to this task. I wish you well and look forward to working with you to make the future of our children, and our children's children, brighter.

No reira, Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa